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Philippians

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Occasionally those who deny that Jesus Christ is God have argued that Philippians 2:6 should be translated to say that Christ existed “in the form of a god” instead of “in the form of God.” Greg Stafford is a notable recent advocate of this translation. This article refutes Stafford’s argument, explaining the following points. (1) The absence of the definite article in Greek before the word for “God” (theos) does not change the word’s meaning, (2) Paul, like the other New Testament writers, regularly uses the word theos with or without the article to mean “God,” and on those rare occasions where it means a “god” he makes that clear. (3) In the same sentence, Paul says that Christ did not seize or take advantage of being “equal with God,” an expression hardly anyone has suggested might mean “equal with a god” (and for very good reasons). (4) In context, the expression “equal with God” confirms the standard understanding of the preceding expression to mean “in the form of God.” (5) Similar passages elsewhere in the New Testament about Christ make parallel statements about his deity that also confirm the correct translation to be “in the form of God.”